Somnibot
Somnibot is a female lullaby-singing, sleep-themed monster, created by Klank & Orbus on Mondo's suggestion, whose sleep-inducing power enabled her to put both human and machine into a deep sleep (the type of sleep that Snow White and Princess Aurora would fall into) by the hypnotic power of her singing voice; she uses a music- and brainwave-based hypnotic spell that both tires and weakens her victims, putting them into a deep sleep. She even attempted to place the Gold Ranger under the power of her lullaby and put him to sleep as well. She was first defeated in her battle with the Gold Ranger at a riverbank near Angel Grove. To protect themselves from being affected by the sleeping spell, Klank & Orbus both wear acoustic, spell-resistant headphones/earmuffs at one point. Somnibot speaks and sings in a very cute, childlike and sweet-sounding voice. In both of her forms, her primary method of attack is to induce sleep; an especially deep slumber that can be experienced by both humans and machines alike. She does this by singing a lullaby, while her eyes glow brightly like twinkling stars, intending to mesmerize and lull her opponents into sleepiness. Her victims would then fall asleep and then possibly experience very sweet and peaceful dreams (albeit against their will), but she was destroyed by the Zeo Ultrazord before they could be seen. When Zordon was briefing the Rangers on Somnibot, Rocky mused that her spell (and in effect, her singing and presence itself) sounded like a good idea right then, as the Rangers were sleepy from overwork at the time and needed some rest. She is also described by Zordon as "King Mondo's latest creation" when he is briefing the Rangers on her. In her first form, she wears a large pink on her head and her voice is rather yawn-heavy on occasion, as if her singing puts her to sleep as well. True to her motif, she also makes various sleep- and bedtime-related puns in her first form as well, specifically during her battle with the Gold Ranger at the riverbank. In her second form, however, her puns become a little more dark and sinister. As explained, in her first form she is very narcoleptic. Overall, she has a very adorable-looking appearance in her primary form, resembling a child's toy robot. After her initial defeat, she returns with a giant, megaphone-shaped speaker where her face used to be. Even the Gold Ranger is no match for her powered-up sleeping spell and her attitude is much nastier, her characteristic sleepiness and sweet-looking nature entirely gone. Later when she grows huge, she is destroyed by the Zeo Ultrazord but not before arrogantly claiming herself to be invincible. Queen Machina later fretted over Somnibot's destruction, though her husband was asleep at the time. Somnibot was later seen as an audience member in Prince Gasket's Machine Arena. It is unexplained how she got revived from the Zeo Ultrazord finisher, but she was resurrected from the assault with no permanent injury. She has not been seen since. She is presumed destroyed or purified by Zordon's Energy Wave. Character History Somnibot was created when King Mondo and his wife Queen Machina were impressed that their plan to wear out the Rangers (with two weeks worth of Cog attacks) was working. Mondo asked Klank and Orbus to assemble her as a way to finally finish the job and, the following afternoon, she was presented to the Gadgetry Family. Mondo asked Klank to ask a Quadrafighter pilot to send her to Earth to begin singing her cradle song to the citizens of Angel Grove, which she agreed to before boarding her flight. While flying to Earth on the back of a Quadrafighter, Somnibot decided to practice using her spell. She sang the lullaby "Rock-a-Bye Baby" as a way to practice using her spell, which caused the pilot to almost fall asleep. Realizing this, she woke him back up and told him not to fall asleep at the wheel, but she herself began to fall under her spell's effects, telling the pilot to wake her when they got to Angel Grove. When she arrived at the park, several citizens were about to run away, but she cast her spell and put them to sleep. She briefly boasted about her spell's strength before laughing. Later, she, Klank and Orbus were at a riverbank outside of the city, along with several Cogs. After the Cogs and the Rangers engaged in battle for a few moments, Klank gave Somnibot her cue to sing. She began casting her sleeping spell, her eyes and hands glowing violet as she sang her cradle song to put the Rangers and Cogs to sleep. After a prolonged period of time, the Gold Ranger showed up to stop her. Somni unleashed her pink energy projectiles at the Ranger, but he attacked her with one of his own; "No!", she shouted, and she was blasted apart. Machina fretted over her destruction, and Mondo ordered Klank to not only rebuild her, but boost her power. Thus, her spell was amplified to a more powerful state than before. She used it on Bulk and Skull when they were arresting a burglar (who also was subjected to her spell) and then on the Rangers when they arrived at the parking lot to confront her. The Gold Ranger arrived to fight her, but Somnibot used her spell on him as well. After a prolonged period of time, she was finally shorted out by a power surge initiated by Alpha 5; her spell, to her anger, was broken and her frequency was terminated. This presumably woke up everyone that she had placed under her spell. Personality Unlike other monsters that have come before her and since (with the exception of Waspicable), Somnibot's personality is very childlike, playful and yet despite her sweet-natured appearance she is pretty deceptive in her first form, due to the fact that she has a very nonthreatening appearance and sleep-based powers. However, she was putting people to sleep (and sending them to the Dream World) against their will, which is wrong and she clearly didn't care given her enthusiasm on continuing to do so. In her second form, however, she is far more sinister after she has been given a power boost and an upgrade to her appearance. In both forms, she is very dedicated to her mission of singing the Rangers to sleep. She also is very proud of her singing ability, though she understands whether or not to sing and cast her spell (as she almost put a Quadrafighter pilot to sleep, which would have spelled disaster for her). However, her pride got the best of her when she arrogantly declared to the Rangers that she was invincible before getting destroyed by the Zeo Ultrazord, which she called a "fancy contraption". To this end, she takes her power very seriously and isn't above boasting about her spell's powerful nature, proclaiming "This is too easy!" and laughing wickedly when she puts several Angel Grove citizens to sleep against their will in Angel Grove Park. When her spell is finally stopped, she is not at all distraught, wanting to take on the Rangers directly "with her own powers" despite her being rendered power''less''. Powers and Abilities Somnibot's powers are based on music and song, specifically the singing of lullabies. Her main ability is possessing a singing voice that makes anyone, whether organic or machine, fall asleep upon hearing her cradle song - similar to how the Sirens of Greek mythology used their beautiful singing to lure sailors and their crew to their doom. In other words, her powers are essentially based on music—every note she sings is soothing and melodious. However, Zordon states that the main source of her powers is her delta wave frequency, which must be altered in order for the spell to be broken. The Rangers' Zeo power frequencies, which somehow match hers, are said by Alpha to have been altered by him (prior to them morphing and teleporting to the riverbank) to protect them from her spell, but the spell is so strong that little can be done to stop the Rangers from going to the dream world. Her power and abilities change and evolve as she goes through multiple forms: *In her first and most recognized form, she sings the lullaby "Rock-a-Bye Baby" (or a song to the lullaby's melody, as is the case with the Rangers), making anyone within a short range fall asleep and are drained of their energy while hearing it; this form affects the Zeo Rangers, several civilians and several Cogs. She can also fire pink energy spheres from her mouth as projectiles. Her eyes glow a brilliant red to violet when she sings, her eyes resembling twinkling stars. Her victims also glow as well, being drained of their energy as they slowly fall asleep. She also waves her arms as well, sending a blanket of warm, red to violet energy (resembling red to violet beams of twinkling starlight) that spreads over her soon-to-be-dreaming victims, specifically the Rangers. *In her final form, granted to her by Klank after being blasted apart by the Gold Ranger, her head has become megaphone-shaped and her sleeping spell is much stronger than before, to the point where her victims glow white instead of red or violet as they are being drained of their life force. Her body is now a stronger golden color as her way of mocking the one who blasted her apart. She finally gets shorted out by a power surge courtesy of Alpha 5, terminating her delta wave frequency, stopping her concert and returning the Rangers' energy to them. Before the shortout, the spell is powerful enough to even affect the Gold Ranger. She stops singing after a short while, however. Arsenal *Somnibot's voice seems to possess magical abilities. She primarily uses her voice in a musical manner to put people and other robots to sleep. *Somnibot has no tangible (i.e.: she can hold them in her hand) weapons. Behind the Scenes Etymology *Her name comes from the Roman Latin word somnus, which means "sleep, drowsiness". She is thus named after the Roman god of sleep, Somnus. Portrayal *Somnibot is voiced by Barbara Goodson, both singing and speaking. She is suit-acted by an uncredited suit performer in the original PR footage. Notes *Bara Gūsuka, Somnibot's Japanese counterpart, was originally male (voiced by a female, veteran voice actress Kazue Takahashi), but she herself was changed to female (albeit her voice sounding a bit like Prince Sprocket's on occasion, due to Barbara Goodson providing her singing and speaking voices). However, King Mondo accidentally refers to Somnibot as male when he orders Klank and Orbus to reassemble her and boost her special powers (most likely due to confusion on David Stenstrom's part, as he and the other voice actors likely watched [[Ep. 30: The Earth is Snoring|the Ohranger episode]] before going into the recording room to do the ADR dubbing). This makes her a part of the somewhat extended list of Power Ranger characters (usually monsters) that were gender-swapped from their respective/original Sentai Series counterparts, such as Flame Head, Photomare, Wedding Dress Org, Octoplant, Somnibot herself, Florabundacus and Crazar among others. **It's most likely because Bara Gūsuka speaks and sings with a voice that sounds like a young girl and that he wears a pink sleeping cap that Saban opted to change the gender when the episode was being produced. **Somnibot also had a second form before her megaphone speaker face - a windup version of herself (complete with winding key) combined with two phonograph horns on top of her head, a computer module on her chest and a baby doll taped to her back. This form was never shown due to time constraints and problems with the source footage, as there were too many Japanese people in the footage and that said footage showed pileups, car accidents and mass deaths (even a gas station exploding), which is against Saban Entertainment's rule of never showing or even mentioning death in PR. The form she would have taken would have made her resemble a cute or a music box. *Somnibot reappears as an audience member in King for a Day, having reverted to her sleeping cap-wearing first form. However, her voice is drowned out by the loud cheers of her fellow monsters. She has not been seen or heard from since. *Barbara Goodson, Somnibot's voice actress, was uncredited in the episode. *Her sleeping spell is very similar to Rhinosnorus's sleeping spell. *Like fellow monster Robocupid, Somnibot has two red "head spikes" on the sides of her head whose function is unknown. *Somnibot's eyelids are articulated—that is, they can open and close. She opens her eyes really wide when she fires her pink energy orbs at the Gold Ranger. **Her mouth, however, is not articulated despite her ability to sing. Several shots of her face reveal that several versions of it were constructed showing her mouth open at different points. *She is one of Barbara Goodson's least known PR characters, due to Somnibot herself being a one-off monster-of-the-week; however, she can still do Somnibot's voice for those fans that remember her. *In Mondo's Last Stand, she was described as one of King Mondo's finest monsters. However, [[Bara Gūsuka|her counterpart in Ohranger]] was deemed "lazy" and "worthless" and ordered to be sentenced to death for making the entire Royal Family fall asleep. *Somnibot's pink nightcap is in a different position on her head in American footage than in the Ohranger footage. *As stated above, Somnibot has emerald eyes that glow from red to bright white when she sings her bedtime songs. They only glow when she sings, however, not when she is talking. *Somnibot has a red crystal dot in the center of her forehead, and small bolts circling her sleep-eyed face. Her mouth resembles that of a or a . *The lullaby that Somnibot sings throughout her episode is , a lullaby with, according to theory, possible origins during the colonial period of North America. However, Mondo implies that Somnibot could sing other cradle songs as well. Brahms' Lullaby, for example, is played in the musical score after she puts Bulk, Skull and a burglar to sleep. *Somnibot is one of several monsters that uses music as a weapon to attack the Rangers. Others include Dischordia, Dizchord, and Guitardo among others. Like Dischordia, Somnibot uses her singing to incapacitate the Rangers, only in Somnibot's case she uses her singing to lull the Rangers and others into beautiful dream worlds rather than make them dance uncontrollably. Unlike Dischordia's singing, however, Somnibot's singing is more melodious than hers. When we first hear her sing to the Rangers, there is a yawn in the back of her mechanical throat, but when she is upgraded her singing has more melody. **When she sings her "rock-a-bye" lullaby, the musical score switches from the typical "action" music you would normally hear in Zeo to something you'd hear from a pretty music box or, more appropriately, an infant's crib mobile decoration. *Somnibot never enters the Power Chamber to sing Alpha to sleep, despite her king and her queen already knowing the location of the Power Chamber by this time. *Yoshiro Harada is her character designer. *The voice of the Time Force mutant Notacon is an exact replication of Somnibot's voice when she is fully-energized, albeit more sympathetic-sounding (due to Notacon not being evil). *Somnibot's body (minus her hands, head spikes and feet) was auctioned at the ABC Monster auction for well over $400. As it turns out, her costume had fallen into a state of disrepair after Rock-A-Bye Power Rangers and King for a Day were filmed, which is why she was never seen again. It is also unknown why the costume committee didn't make a brand new replica of her body.https://www.grnrngr.com/documents/auctions/ Gallery Somnibot.jpg Somnibot with Amp Head.jpg References See Also *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock-a-bye_Baby The song that Somnibot sang in the episode, Rock-a-Bye Baby] Category:Zeo Monsters Category:Female PR Villains